Why is Wikleaks allowed to continue, if, according to Hillary Clinton and other officials from across the political spectrum, the "revelations" are "an attack on the world", or "threaten the national security" of the not only the US and other allied nations?

A simple possibility, or probability: The leaks posted to the New York Times and others are not really leaks at all, but deliberately managed "data dumps", a version of "limited hangout", the intelligence term used to allow public awareness of relatively mild wrongdoings, or breaches of diplomatic protocols, in order to conceal, or divert attention away from, far more serious abuses, crimes, corruption and atrocities.

This is a classic "kill two birds with one stone" case, with an inbuilt knock-on effect: The leaks are allowed to continue because it reinforces to the US public, the notion that we are a tolerant and open society. By over-hyping and bulling-up the "national security" implications and the resulting (fake) outrage over the "revelations", it gives to the public the impression that tolerance of "freedom of expression" is seen as "more important" than censorship.

If there was any information in the wiki dump that was truly damaging to, for example, the war machine (of which the corporate media is a vital component), or senior political or corporate icons (on either 'side' of the aisle), such information would be kept secret. A repeat of the Pentagon Papers cannot happen in the 2000s; the media would never permit it; there is plenty of harmless pap to keep the populace amused without biting off the hand that feeds them.

Why am I skeptical? The corporate media, especially the current batch of weasels in the boardrooms that run information dissemination policy, are by default only loyal to government when it serves corporate power, and not just US-owned corporations.

The only thing these leaks have caused is a few red faces. Period. These "leaks" are fairy dust, and have been hyped out of all proportion; there is nothing in there that would endanger "US national security", which today can be loosely translated as the financial security, both personal and corporate, of the élites to whom lawmakers answer.

Julian Assange is seen by some to be a traitor, by others a hero. My take is that he is a tool, and has probably been paid handsomely. If he was truly a danger to the status quo, he would not be alive now.

I don't agree that this was a managed leak. I don't see any reason to have such a leak. I think that Assange fancies himself as some sort of raging man against the machine. I also think that the information was obtained illegally, for which he will be prosecuted in some form (even if its not on charges related to the offense).

Now, I do agree that there is really nothing in these cables and documents that "endangers national security." Are our allies and enemies really surprised that we talk about them? Is it a really a surprise that older WMDs were found in Iraq? In it surprising that our Secretary of State was checking up on the mental health of a foreign leader?

I realize some will attack me for this, but frankly...I just don't care. Who does care, beyond the corporate-whore media?

I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow doesn't look good either.

Julian Assange is seen by some to be a traitor, by others a hero. My take is that he is a tool, and has probably been paid handsomely. If he was truly a danger to the status quo, he would not be alive now.

Whether he is some wannabe anarchist or employed to disseminate this info, it seems most can agree that he is indeed a tool.

"My 8th grade math teacher once said: "You can't help it if you're dumb, you are born that way. But stupid is self inflicted."" -Hiro.

I don't agree that this was a managed leak. I don't see any reason to have such a leak. I think that Assange fancies himself as some sort of raging man against the machine. I also think that the information was obtained illegally, for which he will be prosecuted in some form (even if its not on charges related to the offense).

Now, I do agree that there is really nothing in these cables and documents that "endangers national security." Are our allies and enemies really surprised that we talk about them? Is it a really a surprise that older WMDs were found in Iraq? In it surprising that our Secretary of State was checking up on the mental health of a foreign leader?

I realize some will attack me for this, but frankly...I just don't care. Who does care, beyond the corporate-whore media?

I likewise don't think that it is a big propaganda-fabrication, not because it wouldn't be possible, but because of seeing no reason for doing this as it would have no advantage for the US.

I think it's the natural consequence of the new communication-technologies and probably a watershed-moment that will be remembered in decades to come. Should we call it wikileak-gate?

This is a diplomatic a-bomb that pulls the curtain away and shows us what we already suspected was going on... but it has a whole different quality to see our suspections proven.

Currently only a small part of the documents were published, there is probably still a lot of "dangerous" information waiting to see the day of light, so we will probably have a lot of fun for months to come.

Of course a whole machinery of defense is already being set in motion by the US- and other governments to reduce the impact of the wikileaks:

1. They portray Assange as an egoistic maniac, who is maybe a rapist. It's the old tactic of killing the messenger. Of course the secret agencies would like to kill him for real but that would make him only a martyr and his message more convincing. The ideal solution would be to convict him for some crimes or to pressure him until he commits suicide.
Maybe Assange is a rapist, who knows, but it doesn't change the meaning of the wikileaks in any way.

2. They try to prevent the publication of the rest of the documents by forcing internet-providers to deny wikileaks a platform as happened with Amazon and by asking the major newspapers that have the full documents to consult with them on what to report and what not. The justification for that is of course the national security, the endangerment of diplomatic trust...

3. They try to downplay the importance of the leaked cables, belittling it...

Until today there were these "explosive" leaks:

1. Hillary Clinton ordered diplomats to spy out the leadership of the UN, including aquiring iris-scans of Ban Ki Moon and credit-card- and other infos of him and his colleagues.

2. The UK-government assured the US to let it use a loophole to allow it to keep cluster-bombs on UK-soil that is leased by the US, despite the UK signing a ban on cluster-bombs that prohibits it to store cluster-bombs on UK-soil and to prohibit it to help other countries in using, developing or storing them.

3. The arab governments of Jordan and Saudi-Arabia called the US to attack Iran, "to cut off the head of the snake".

4. Russia's government, an autocracy around Putin, is being described as being so involved in organized crime that there is no difference between them.

5. The US supports the kurdish terror-organization PKK inside Iraq, freeing its militants, training them and delivering weapons and funds to them.

It will take months to digest through the many documents to be released and there will probably more and more revealing infromation coming out of it, interesting times are ahead.

I disagree, and could prove you're wrong; care to offer any proof that you're not wrong?

The question, in the wake of the WikiLeaks revelation, is whether foreign service officers will remain as candid in writing cables as they have been. Since they provide eyes and ears globally not just for the State Department but for much of the U.S. government, their unvarnished reports have been essential.

無心The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders., Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit__Edward Abbey

Wasn't it Irans leader Ahmadinejad that claimed that wikileaks was a US propaganda site recently. Its interesting that some AO'ers think Assange is a tool, thats what Iran is saying...Of course we know fully well that Ahmadinejad does talk some sense from time to time - it was him who told us what we all knew, that speculators were reaming the price of oil back in 2008 that caused the global depression.

Incidently, even though we are still in this depression, it seems that oil is about to push through $100 a barrel again, thus kicking any recovery into touch.

However, while I wouldn't rule out that Assange is a tool, I very much doubt it, and its clear that the rape allegations are just political tomfoolery and character assassination.

So I wish Assange all the best (live long and prosper), and for once I agree with trumptman, although I'm sure if McPalin were president, he'd be screaming for his assassination, just like that sweet old bitch is doing.

I'd like to see the contents of the 'insurance policy' decrypted, once Assange is safe.

The item included amongst the wikileaks "data dump", that which garnered the most media attention, was the reports of "fear and loathing that a number of Arab and Mid East nations had for Iran, and Iran's nuclear program".

The same elements within both the US and Israeli governments that planned a series of Mid East (etc etc) wars prior to 9/11, then launched their series of wars against Arab/Muslim and Mid East nations in the wake of 9/11, are the same parties who are currently gagging for war/military action against Iran.

Of course, any connection between Julian Assange/wikileaks and those who are busting to attack Iran, is purely coincidental.

We the public deserve an honest complete review of the facts with scientific interpretation and implications as to what really happened on 9/11. Bill Binney, Former senior technical director, NSA.

What a wonderful turn of events! Whatever happens to Julian he can rest assured that he is a hero and potentially saviour of modern democracy.

I find it laughable that governments think they can operate on such a level of secrecy from the public interest. Truth can never do harm, only secrets and lies do harm. Perhaps the US should focus their efforts on asking why its own citizens would leak such material and patching the holes that allowed it to happen.

As a conspiracy theorist at heart, because the leaks are on such a broad scale and are damning mainly to those that benefit from pandoring lies and misinformation (right govermnets more than the left) I wonder whether this is a leak by the US government itself!

I wish someone would create an awesome screensaver that takes a random cable and displays it teleprompt-style as if being typed by the security officer...all in retro green computer text. That would be the coolest screensaver ever!!!!

This latest Wikileak-thing is even more revealing than the previous instances. This is priceless, we get to read real insider-stuff!

Four among many interesting things:
1. Saudi Arabia's king urged the US to destroy Iran's nuclear plants!

2. Yemen's government assured the US to say the bombing of the Al-qaeeda-bases in Yemen were done by Yemen's forces! That means obviously the US is not only bombing in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia but also in Yemen!

3. Hillary Clinton calling its high officials to spy in the UN!

4. The US thinks Afghanistan's president Karsai to be very weak and easily persuaded by conspiracy theories.

Maybe this whole thing is a setup by Obama to get Hillary for the defense secretary and quit her present job as sec of state.Where does this creep Assange get this material?

Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, has circulated across the internet an encrypted “poison pill” cache of uncensored documents suspected to include files on BP and Guantanamo Bay.

One of the files identified this weekend by The Sunday Times — called the “insurance” file — has been downloaded from the WikiLeaks website by tens of thousands of supporters, from America to Australia.

Assange warns that any government that tries to curtail his activities risks triggering a new deluge of state and commercial secrets.

The military papers on Guantanamo Bay, yet to be published, have been supplied by Bradley Manning, Assange’s primary source until his arrest in May. Other documents that Assange is confirmed to possess include an aerial video of a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan that killed civilians, BP files and Bank of America documents.

One of the key files available for download — named insurance.aes256 — appears to be encrypted with a 256-digit key. Experts said last week it was virtually unbreakable.

The U.S. Department of Defense says it is aware of the WikiLeaks insurance file, but has been unable to establish its contents. It has been available for download since July.

Assange has warned he can divulge the classified documents in the insurance file and similar backups if he is detained or the WikiLeaks website is permanently removed from the internet. He has suggested the contents are unredacted, posing a possible security risk for coalition partners around the world.

Assange warned: “We have over a long period of time distributed encrypted backups of material we have yet to release. All we have to do is release the password to that material, and it is instantly available.”

The “doomsday files” are part of a contingency plan drawn up by Assange and his supporters as they face a legal threat. He is wanted in Sweden over sexual assault allegations, and the US administration is reviewing the possibility of legal action after the release of 250,000 diplomatic cables.

Ben Laurie, a London-based computer security expert who has advised WikiLeaks, said: “Julian’s a smart guy and this is an interesting tactic. He will hope it deters anyone from acting against him.”

Nigel Smart, professor of cryptology at the U.K.'s Bristol University, said even powerful military computers would be unable to crack the encryption. He said: “This isn’t something that can be broken with a modern computer. You need the key to open it.”

The file is 1.4 gigabytes in size, which would be big enough for a compressed version of all the files released this year and additional data.

Assange said last year that he had been leaked a computer hard drive from an executive at Bank of America and warned this month he was planning a major release on a large American bank. He also claims to have confidential files on BP and other energy companies. Tens of millions of personal computers were hijacked last week in an act of sabotage that crippled the WikiLeaks website. WikiLeaks revealed that a “denial of service” attack that temporarily shut down the website used a network of “zombie” computers, which were infiltrated by the hackers.

WikiLeaks is now battling for its survival. Amazon, which hosted the website, refused further access to its servers last week. A site that provided WikiLeaks with its domain name, EveryDNS.net, also cut off its service because it said it was being inundated with sabotage attacks.

Some of the contingency plans were revealed when the site re-emerged on Friday with a Swiss address, WikiLeaks.ch. The new name was provided by the Swiss Pirate party, which champions internet freedom. Assange has also set up contingency servers in Sweden.

Saudi Arabia is the world's largest source of funds for Islamist militant groups such as the Afghan Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba but the Saudi government is reluctant to stem the flow of money, according to Hillary Clinton.

"More needs to be done since Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qaida, the Taliban, LeT and other terrorist groups," says a secret December 2009 paper signed by the US secretary of state. Her memo urged US diplomats to redouble their efforts to stop Gulf money reaching extremists in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide," she said.

The Constitution of the United States, Art. III, defines treason against the United States to consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid or comfort. This offence is punished with death. By the same article of the Constitution, no person shall be convicted of treason, unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.

Legal def:

Quote:

TreasonAn attempt to overthrow the government of the state or nation to which one owes allegiance, by making war against that government or by giving material support to the enemies of that government. In order to be convicted of treason, a person must confess in open court or there must be testimony to overt acts by two witnesses. See also sedition.

But out of the gobbledygook, comes a very clear thing: [unclear] you cant trust the government; you cant believe what they say; and you cant rely on their judgment; and the the implicit infallibility of presidents, which has been an accepted thing in America, is badly hurt by this, because it shows that people do things the President wants to do even though its wrong, and the President can be wrong.

If Julian Assange was a Chinese dissident revealing like truths about the Chinese government operations, he would be a Western Hero and have 100% support from the world government.

Infact the West would be falling over themselves to help him out. China would be denigrated for Human Rights, freedom of speech, freedom and Democracy and the wingers would be calling for us to nuke Beijing while shouting Freedom and Democracy through a loudhailer.

Assange may have sealed his own fate, but perhaps he'll be remembered as the only/last human being who stood up for truth before the West collapses into a parody of Mad Max, Terminator and Half-life 2.

I really hope he is an outsider trying to bring down the filth rather than a 'tool'

If Julian Assange was a Chinese dissident revealing like truths about the Chinese government operations, he would be a Western Hero and have 100% support from the world government.

Infact the West would be falling over themselves to help him out. China would be denigrated for Human Rights, freedom of speech, freedom and Democracy and the wingers would be calling for us to nuke Beijing while shouting Freedom and Democracy through a loudhailer.

Assange may have sealed his own fate, but perhaps he'll be remembered as the only/last human being who stood up for truth before the West collapses into a parody of Mad Max, Terminator and Half-life 2.

I really hope he is an outsider trying to bring down the filth rather than a 'tool'

Hope. Such a cheapened word, since 2008.

But if Assange really was on the side of humanity (as opposed to the unpoliceable élites), there is not a snowball's chance in a Saharan summer that he would still be alive, or permitted to do this. Similarly with Osama bin Laden: if the assigned superstar of terror is still alive, he is undoubtedly under secure US military custody and/or protection.

We the public deserve an honest complete review of the facts with scientific interpretation and implications as to what really happened on 9/11. Bill Binney, Former senior technical director, NSA.

But if Assange really was on the side of humanity (as opposed to the unpoliceable élites), there is not a snowball's chance in a Saharan summer that he would still be alive, or permitted to do this. Similarly with Osama bin Laden: if the assigned superstar of terror is still alive, he is undoubtedly under secure US military custody and/or protection.

Britain's police arrested Assange today based on an european arrest warrant issued by the swedish authorities.

It's interesting to see how all the machinations work to stop wikileaks, how bank-accounts get frozen, creditcard-companies stop transferring money, internet-providers refuse to host sites... usually measures taken against terror-organizations.

So, obviously Assange and his wikileak-campaign have been declared to be a terroristic threat.

People have warned that the new post 9/11-security laws that were adopted worldwide in the war against terror would be one day used against anyone declared to be a threat to national security. Here we are seeing it used against free speech.
Sure, that american guy in prison who delivered these secret documents broke laws, maybe even committed treason, but Assange and wikileak merely practiced their rights of free speech by publishing these documents, just like happened with the "Pentagon papers" during the Vietnam war.

Now regarding Assange himself, it was stupid to have sex-parties while being involved in this wikileak-phase, that way he became an easy target for secret agencies to set him up for character-assassination.

Should be interesting to see what happens next, espescially because of the tactic to threaten with the publishing of the encryption-key for already distributed raw-files if Assange gets behind bars. Also looking forward to the bank-stories to be published yet.

I disagree, and could prove you're wrong; care to offer any proof that you're not wrong?

The United States is pleased to announce that it will host UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day event in 2011, from May 1 - May 3 in Washington, D.C. UNESCO is the only UN agency with the mandate to promote freedom of expression and its corollary, freedom of the press.

Quote:

Press Freedom Prize at the National Press Club on May 3rd. This prize, determined by an independent jury of international journalists, honors a person, organization or institution that has notably contributed to the defense and/or promotion of press freedom, especially where risks have been undertaken.

The US Justice Department is considering charging Mr Assange with espionage offences over his website’s unprecedented release of classified US diplomatic files. Several right-wing American politicians are pressing for his prosecution and even execution, with Sarah Palin, the former vice-presidential candidate, saying he should be pursued the same as al-Qa’ida and Taliban leaders.

U.S. agencies have warned some employees that reading the classified State Department documents released by WikiLeaks puts them at risk of losing their jobs. But what about students considering jobs with the federal government? Do they jeopardize their chances by reading WikiLeaks?

I should preface my comments by saying I no longer know who is on whose side in this thread (in regard to this topic it is not always immediately obvious). I know what some people's politics are eg. sammi jo, sego, trumpty. But I am a refugee of the split/aka the "revolution" between appleinsider and applenova. Like others, I have been left swimming in largely open water ever since those fateful events back in 2004. (Newcomers, please don't get hung up on what happened back then - it was all rather silly.)

I'm also a whistleblower since October 2005 (over 2 years since my initial registration with appleinsider and it's now almost 10 years since I first started lurking at this site).

I don't usually post in PO because I am one of the ones who had issues with the way discussion often degenerated into fruitless name calling.

But in the interim I became a whistleblower.

I've always defended trumpty's right to be heard even though I know our political views could not be farther apart. So it is indeed ironic that I will appear to be supporting his views here. But then I rarely participated in PO because I was never very political until I found myself (most unwillingly) cast in the role of whistleblower.

sammi, sego, trumpty, others - you need to look at this more closely. I suspect trumpty supports WL ATM because he doesn't really get it (sorry trumpty really no offense and I may well be wrong because the debate cuts across political allegiances - a sure sign of WYSIWYG).

But if your support is genuine, you are more than welcome AFAIC. As is anyone from either side of politics who supports nothing more subversive than greater government (any government) transparency and accountability.

Look I don't discount 9/11 as a fit-up not after what I've seen sammi jo. BUT they (governments of all persuasions) are not as organized and complicit as you claim - at least, not based on my experience or what I'm observing happening re: WL. They certainly have an agenda. But they rely on bringing it about via what the head of Whistleblowers Australia described to me as a "culture" not a "conspiracy".

The sad truth is, sammi jo, sego and trumpty agree more than they know. But in order to realize that, they all need to recognize that one of the key weapons deployed by governments (of all persuasions) is divide and conquer.

This is not the time to let them achieve this. I've been a member long enough here to know you are ALL better than that. And I would welcome the sort of balanced yet fearless discussion of what is happening here that first made me register all those years ago.

You could start here (don't be put off by the title). It reminds me of what we used to be. All of us.

You know trumpty. I don't agree with virtually a thing you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

That is what this is all about.

Tomorrow shall be love for the loveless;And for the lover, tomorrow shall be love.